Men: show us the female characters you admire

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A campaign is asking boys – of all ages – to share photographic proof of female characters they like, to counteract the misconception that boys won't read about girls.

Men in our readership, we want to hear from you: what female characters inspired you as kids? And parents, what girl protagonists are sparking the interest of your boys? And while we're at it, why not share abhorrent girly or boyish book covers you've come across?

We'll include the best submissions in a gallery on the Guardian site. Please bear in mind that we need parental permission for photos of under 16s, so do make that explicit in the text when you submit them.

Red from British Muslim writer Khalid Patel's short story of the same name is a near silent 12-year-old girl who contends with drug dealers, junkies and general sleazebags in the dark, dangerous forest of corruption that is Riverstones City. She’s a truly admirable and likeable female character.

My name is Kush. I am ten. I am from Zimbabwe. I live in France but go to school in Geneva, in Switzerland. Ratburger by David Walliams is one of my favourite books. It is about a girl called Zoe, her rat Armitage, her wimpy dad, her awful step-mum Sheila and an evil guy called Bert. I like Zoe because she is brave, funny, optimistic and kind to animals. David Walliams is a very funny writer with a weird imagination. (Please note that parental permission has been given to use this image by his mother Petina Gappah)

My name is Kush. I am ten. I am from Zimbabwe. I live in France but go to school in Geneva, in Switzerland. Ratburger by David Walliams is one of my favourite books. It is about a girl called Zoe, her rat Armitage, her wimpy dad, her awful step-mum Sheila and an evil guy called Bert. I like Zoe because she is brave, funny, optimistic and kind to animals. David Walliams is a very funny writer with a weird imagination. (Please note that parental permission has been given to use this image by his mother Petina Gappah)

I loved Corrag. In spite of everything the world, and it was a pretty harsh world, threw at her, she kept her basic decency and belief in good. I couldn't take a photo of the book. I loaned it to my daughter and never got it back!

Our seven year old son has yet to be influenced by societies ideas about what girls can't do or be . As far as he is concerned Wonder Woman, Bat Girl and Wild Style are just as competent as their male partners. He recently watched all the Wonder Woman 1970's TV series on Youtube and was so enthralled that he spent the next few weeks praying that she would be the next Lego mini figure to appear in the little gold packets, purchased from Tesco every pocket money day. I am hoping this non bias attitude towards female heroes and women in general, lasts our son's whole life time. Of course, being raised surrounded by strong, independent and out spoken women may help him on his way.

I love Joe Keatinge's "Glory", a half demon, half amazon demigoddess who can literally rip the arms off her universe's equivalent of superman & beat him bloody with the stumps. Also, Black Cat - funny, sassy, sexy & always her own person. Finally, Harley Quinn - a survivor of an abusive relationship who finds herself when her friend Poison Ivy takes her in, and who finally gets her bloody revenge on her abuser the Joker. So many good female comic book characters. Oh and Neil Gaiman's "Death", Judge Anderson from Psi-corps, Ragged Robin from the Invisibles... On TV, Caity Lotz' version of Black Canary.

I know I'm the writer, but hear me out. I admire Camille which is why I write about her: she is based on my own daughter. She is sassy, spunky, and smart, and she is fiercely independent. She needs no boy to rescue her and she's always the smartest kid in the room. Although there are many female characters I admire, there are none I could admire more than the one based on my own daughter.

Not a book but for a games industry so saturated with weak and shallow female characters the Advance Wars series is incredibly ahead of its time. There are just as many women as men and all of them are intelligent, non sexualised and independent. The game itself is also one of the highest rated Nintendo games of all time so well worth looking for. The first one has just been released on Wii-U's Virtual Console and the rest should be cheap as chips from Amazon or the like by now.

Malcolm Saville always wrote well about both boys and girls, and the girls as well as the boys got into scrapes during their adventures. The one I remember most is Peter (short for Petronella) Sterling, who was one of the leaders, but there were Jenny Harman and Penny Warrender as well.

And, of course, there were Arthur Ransome's 'Swallows and Amazons' books

Ever since reading Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, I have been in love with the title character (who chooses her moniker, preferring it to her given name of Susan). The book is told through the eyes of Leo, an Arizona teenage boy who falls for her: the scene where she takes him out into the desert is magical, and the moment when he makes clear to her how the rest of the school has come to intensely dislike her is heart-breaking. Usually when I read books I want to be the character, able to slay dragons or make the right moral decision at the right time. With Stargirl, I just wished I could meet her, or see the world as she does. By far the literary character that I most admire, and her gender is irrelevant.

On a sadder note, the sequel, 'Love, Stargirl', was hugely disappointing.

Fanny Price, who was quite unfairly and perhaps foolishly attacked in an essay by Kingsley Amis, is a real heroine in this book of Austen's - the first book by Austen that I couldn't put down & in reading which I fell in love with the heroine. She, alone of all the characters, specifically the female ones, stands firm against the encroaching worldliness of the couple from London who visit Mansfield Park and who sparkle with the superficial glitter of the coming-out balls and so on.

Fanny goes on - against the odds you might say - to win Mansfield Park (which represents England) & to marry the only decent male character in the novel. It's Austen's prayer for her home country - and not an ignoble one. Fanny Price is an evangelical Christian, which is no doubt why Amis disliked her so much - but so wrongly.